Vineland BOE posting help wanted ad

VINELAND – With its own reorganization on the horizon, the school board is also ready to replace board member Richard Baruffi, who resigned last month citing health reasons.

This means four school board members will take their oath of office in January.

Newly elected members Kim Codispoti, Joe Pagano and incumbent Diamaris Rios will be sworn in at the annual reorganization meeting set for 6 p.m. Jan. 7 at the Plum Street administrative office. At that time, board members will also name their president and vice president.

And within the next week, the school district is set to advertise for those interested in serving as a temporary board member. The successful applicant will occupy Baruffi’s seat until voters determine in November who they want to serve out the one-year that will remain on the unexpired term.

The plan is to have the newly reorganized board interview the contenders at its Jan. 14 work session. Because the board is filling an elected position, the interviews are held in public so the community can watch the process unfold, board solicitor Bob DeSanto said.

The board found itself in an awkward position when a recent district-wide policy revision essentially gutted the board’s previous policy spelling out how to fill unexpired terms.

After a hearty discussion, the board drafted how it wanted to proceed, which did not vastly deviate from how temporary board members were named in the past. The key difference is past contenders had more advance knowledge of the questions board members wanted them to answer in their pitch for the seat.

This time, contenders will be invited to show up at 5:15 p.m. Jan. 14 to get the list of standardized questions they should address in their 7-minute presentations to the board at the 6 p.m. meeting.

In an effort to be fair, contenders will be sequestered and called in one at a time so there is no advantage gained by listening to the other applicants, board members said.

After all contenders have told the board essentially what they would bring to the table, the school board will go into executive session to determine who will fill the seat.

Board member Susanne Morello noted applicants should come to the meeting ready to work.

The successful applicant will then take the oath of office and join the school board for the rest of the work session. The new member will be able to listen to the background on the issues and be ready to cast their vote at the Jan. 21 regular meeting.

Board members Scott English, Diamaris Rios, Chris Jennings and Frank DiGiorgio make up the subcommittee drafting the questions the contenders will face. The list will be fine-tuned from submissions from the full board.

In other business, the school board honored its outgoing members Tom Ulrich and school board president Eugene Medio, both who were attending the last meeting of their terms.

English noted the pending want ad posting for a new board member and half-joked to the departing, “if you get the feeling you want to jump back in.”

The school board also approved a policy to address the needs of the district’s transgender students. The policy notes school-related issues regarding transgender students will vary on a case-by-case basis.

But it calls for the administration to meet with the student and parent to address school-related issues, including the name and pronoun to be used by district staff in referring to the student, gender identification to be used on school records and district staff members should be informed of student’s access and use of restrooms and locker rooms.